Old guard looks to stay atop the standings

Tuesday

The Bloomfield boys and girls bowling teams enter the season as favorites in the West division.

The boys and girls 2007 Finger Lakes League East and West high school bowling teams hit full stride this week with most teams in both leagues playing two games each during this current week.

While in all four leagues the consensus amongst most the coaches in both leagues say it will be more of the same from last year, by the same token there are also a lot of young, new faces that the predicted status quo from last year will be proven right or wrong by. In fact a lot of young new faces.

The defending FL East champion Geneva Panthers girls team, who most are picking to repeat the performance again this year, have two eighth graders and one seventh grader listed as important members on their team alone.

There is a plethora of other freshman, eighth grade and even seventh graders listed as playing key roles on several other teams this year. The Harley-Allendale Columbia Wolves girls team alone has six freshman bowlers listed as possible contributors on their team.

“There is a lot of inexperience in the league this year,” said Naples girls coach John Murphy. He is speaking from experience as his team is returning no starters, while the FL West HAC girls report one returning player and the Romulus girls are also returning just one player.

On the other hand quite a few teams are returning a multitude of familiar faces. Count on the boys side Bloomfield, Honeoye, Geneva, Penn Yan and Marcus Whitman as a few while on the girls side, the Newark Reds girls team will be returning four of their starters. But here is the rub...they will be the only four bowlers on the whole team.
Here is a quick capsule to both the FL West and East boys and girls leagues from information as supplied by each team:

Finger Lakes East Boys

The Newark Reds boys bowling team looks again to be the team to beat this winter season. All coaches contacted pointed to the Reds depth and recent history of winning as why they will be hard to stop again this year.

Newark will be led by senior Craig Butler, and sophomores Doug Butler, Josh Smith, and Brent Zeigler.

The Penn Yan Mustang boys team will be returning five senior starters and that makes a serious threat to Newark’s dominance of the FL East.

The five seniors that the Mustang’s will revolve around will be Nate Johnson, Trevor Fleischman, Anthony Gleason, Karl Fleming, and Steven Groom. Sophomore’s Zach Johnson, coach Johnson’s son, and Eric Pulver should be solid additions to the team.

Geneva will be depending on seniors Alex Clark and Keven Keuer along with junior Ryan Rozelle and sophomore Nick Smith to lead a unit that also includes two eighth graders and a seventh grader.

Three seniors, a junior and two sophomores will be the returning core of bowlers for Todd Brockhuizen’s’ Wayne Eagles boys team. Seniors Adam Gunn, Randy Luck, and Bryan Jones, along with junior Jeff Prindle, and sophomore Kolby Tanner comprise that group.

Victor coach Mark Foeder is looking for Jordan Benzing, Nathan Scott, and Jeremy Garvey to anchor his team. As Garvey is the only senior on the team and Foeder is also looking to seventh grader Dylan LaBrake and eighth grader Kody Daily to also help out, youth is a key word in Foeder’s talk about his team.

Randy Eddinger, back in the saddle at the reigns of the Marcus Whitman boys bowling team after a year off, points to those teams with bowling centers in their towns as the teams to always be the ones to beat.

Eddinger is returning his whole starting line up from last year and points to two juniors, Jeremy Armison and Andrew Cornish to lead the way.

Two seniors, a junior and a sophomore will anchor the Mynderse Screaming Eagles boys team. Rich Miller and Nick Capacci are the seniors with Ben Hackney the junior and Brendan McIntyre the sophomore.

Finger Lakes East Girls

Geneva girls coach Chuck Collins pulls no punches when asked about what he expects from his girls bowling team this year.

“Another league championship,” he quickly replied when asked. “I really am. And I say that knowing that we don’t have as much depth this year as we did last year.”

The Panthers return five key bowlers from last years FL East championship team with juniors Molly DeMatties and Jen Czaplak along with sophomore Alena Laquitara, freshman Brittany Roberts and eighth-grader Stephanie Lozada representing that core of key bowlers.

“You can’t overlook anybody in this league though. Overall it should be a close race in the league this year,” concluded Collins.

The Newark girls, as stated before, only have four bowlers, but if they can find a fifth, and even with out a fifth some coaches think they will be a tough team to beat. And while that may be true, Newark coach Jim Scarfia isn’t as optimistic as his FL East counterparts.

Those four lone bowlers for the Reds are seniors Brittany Sadler, a member of last year’s Daily Messenger All-Star team, and Melissa Sharrow, along with sophomores Meredith Graf and Tiffany DeVay.

Eddinger himself is looking at good numbers for his team.

Leading the returning starters for the Wildcats will be Liz Roaix, in her sixth year of bowling for MW, and Jaimee Schweigert. They are also relying on Naples transfer Kellie Coots to help out.

“I’m very fortunate that we only lost Kelsey Brown to graduation this year,” said Mynderse girls coach Gus Garnsey. “Because of that I’m hoping the girls can contend for first place.”

The Blue Devils find themselves back in the FL East for the first time in a few years and as a newcomer in the league, look to give the East teams some fits.

Finger Lakes West Boys

Every Finger Lakes West boys bowling coach should shudder when they hear what Bloomfield coach Pat Conklin has to say about his 2007 boys bowling team’s version of last years FL West league champs.

“Our boys team should be just as strong as last year’s team. Possibly stronger,” Conklin stated. The team return’s the heart of last years championship team with Corey Van Buren, Danny Pratt and Dustin Pettingill helping make Conklin make his bold prediction. The Bombers John Aman, a freshman is listed as a newcomer that should contribute to the team’s success.

Randy Yale, coach of the Honeoye Bulldogs boys team, after years of finishing second to Bloomfield in the FL West, is optimistic about his teams chances once again.
“We are looking to win the league, but we have always had Bloomfield in the way. They look tough again this year.”

The Bulldogs are returning seniors Mike O‘Leary and Curtis Evanicki, junior Casey Wright and sophomore Justin Evanicki. David Hubbly is listed as a top newcomer while John Spencer is listed as key loss for the Bulldogs.

Naples is another team retaining a good core of players from last year’s team, with senior’s Matt Smith and Tyler Fox, listed with junior’s Dan Bassett and David Huff listed as key returnees. Sophomore Ben Case will be relied on to supply key help also.

Finger Lakes West Girls

It doesn’t matter who you talk to, nobody but nobody involved with Finger Lakes West girls bowling is expecting anything different from what happened last year; the Bloomfield Bomber girls keglers walking away with the FL East crown, losing only two regular season games all last season.

The Bombers are returning Daily Messenger Bowler of the Year Emily Pratt, along with Daily Messenger first team all-stars from last year, Jessica Derby and Jordan Smith
At Honeoye, a mixture of two seniors, Emily Morse and Lauren Gotham and eighth-grader Brittany Spencer will be leading the Bulldog keglers into another battle with Bloomfield for the FL West title.

Naples coach John Murphy has a lot less then the Bombers and Bulldogs to work with this year as he is only returning sophomore Amanda Fox from last years team. But he feels he has six good newcomers to help fill out the rest of his starting five.

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